Review Article |
Featured
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Commentary |
The promise and challenge of nanostructured solar cells
Nanoscale objects provide opportunities to revolutionize the conversion of solar energy by enabling highly efficient and low-cost devices. Challenges associated with demonstrating high efficiency and stability are now being addressed in the research community.
- Matthew C. Beard
- , Joseph M. Luther
- & Arthur J. Nozik
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Letter |
Ultrafast electronic readout of diamond nitrogen–vacancy centres coupled to graphene
Excitation transfer between nitrogen–vacancy centres and graphene can be used to detect the spin of the electron in the nitrogen–vacancy centre through electrical measurements.
- Andreas Brenneis
- , Louis Gaudreau
- & Alexander W. Holleitner
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Letter |
Sympathetic cooling of a membrane oscillator in a hybrid mechanical–atomic system
Ultracold atoms can be used to sympathetically cool a membrane with a mass ten billion times larger than that of the atoms.
- Andreas Jöckel
- , Aline Faber
- & Philipp Treutlein
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Letter |
Feedback-driven self-assembly of symmetry-breaking optical metamaterials in solution
Self-assembling plasmonic dimers with a feedback mechanism enable selection of specific symmetry-breaking optical metamaterial structures in solution.
- Sui Yang
- , Xingjie Ni
- & Xiang Zhang
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Article |
Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy of single nanodiamonds
The size of non-fluorescent nanodiamonds can be tracked in cells through coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering, which could be used for following cellular pathways quantitatively.
- Iestyn Pope
- , Lukas Payne
- & Paola Borri
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News & Views |
Taken for a spin
A built-in semiconductor/nanomagnet interface acts as a spin filter in a conventional laser to produce circularly polarized emission without the need for external spin-polarized pumping.
- Igor Žutić
- & Paulo E. Faria Junior
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Letter |
Continuous-wave biexciton lasing at room temperature using solution-processed quantum wells
Colloidal quantum wells can be used to achieve continuous-wave-pumped stimulated emission and, if placed in a cavity, lasing.
- Joel Q. Grim
- , Sotirios Christodoulou
- & Iwan Moreels
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Article |
Self-polarized spin-nanolasers
Fe3O4 nanoparticles deposited on top of GaN nanorods produce a spin-up and spin-down imbalance that makes the semiconductor emit coherent spin-polarized light.
- Ju-Ying Chen
- , Tong-Ming Wong
- & Yang-Fang Chen
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Article |
Optomechanical photon shuttling between photonic cavities
A device using optomechanical torsional motion can be used to efficiently transfer photons from one photonic cavity to another.
- Huan Li
- & Mo Li
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Article |
Bidimensional nano-optomechanics and topological backaction in a non-conservative radiation force field
A study of the coupling between a nanowire and a focused light beam allows determination of the vectorial structure of the optomechanical interaction, and demonstrates that bidimensional dynamical backaction governs the nanowire dynamics.
- A. Gloppe
- , P. Verlot
- & O. Arcizet
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Letter |
Ultrafast non-local control of spontaneous emission
Non-local moulding of the vacuum field in a photonic cavity structure enables control of the spontaneous emission of quantum dots.
- Chao-Yuan Jin
- , Robert Johne
- & Andrea Fiore
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Editorial |
Bringing solar cell efficiencies into the light
Nanostructured materials are used in the development of a new generation of efficient solar cells, but challenges in the characterization and fabrication of these cells delay commercial adoption.
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Letter |
Bright light-emitting diodes based on organometal halide perovskite
Electroluminescence with relatively high radiance is observed from solution-processed diodes of organometal halide perovskites.
- Zhi-Kuang Tan
- , Reza Saberi Moghaddam
- & Richard H. Friend
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Article |
Optical trapping of individual human immunodeficiency viruses in culture fluid reveals heterogeneity with single-molecule resolution
Trapping of single HIV virions by optical tweezers reveals substantial heterogeneity in the numbers of envelope glycoproteins, which could have important consequences for infection and transmission.
- Yuanjie Pang
- , Hanna Song
- & Wei Cheng
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Article |
Metamaterial mirrors in optoelectronic devices
The use of a metamaterial mirror in a thin-film solar cell enhances light absorption and photocurrent generation by about 20%.
- Majid Esfandyarpour
- , Erik C. Garnett
- & Mark L. Brongersma
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News & Views |
Non-equilibrium nano-thermometry
The surface temperature of a hot levitating nanoparticle in a rarified gas can be determined from its non-equilibrium Brownian motion.
- Klaus Kroy
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News & Views |
Steering Dyakonov-like waves
The propagation direction of low-loss electromagnetic surface waves can be tuned over tens of degrees by small changes in the dielectric environment.
- Mikhail A. Noginov
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Letter |
Lossless directional guiding of light in dielectric nanosheets using Dyakonov surface waves
Dyakonov surface waves allow light to be guided in fully transparent dielectric nanosheets deposited on top of anisotropic optical materials with no losses and high directionality.
- Osamu Takayama
- , David Artigas
- & Lluis Torner
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News & Views |
Localizing light with electrons
Electronic control of optical Anderson localization can be achieved in optical waveguides with embedded diodes.
- Sergey E. Skipetrov
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Letter |
Nanoscale temperature measurements using non-equilibrium Brownian dynamics of a levitated nanosphere
The non-equilibrium properties of a gas can be studied by analysing the Brownian motion of a levitated nanoparticle immersed in the gas.
- J. Millen
- , T. Deesuwan
- & J. Anders
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Article |
Electronic control of optical Anderson localization modes
Injecting charge carriers into p–n diodes embedded in an optical waveguide can switch Anderson localization modes on and off.
- Shayan Mookherjea
- , Jun Rong Ong
- & Lo Guo-Qiang
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News & Views |
Going green with silk
Silk fibroin can be used as a photoresist in water-based electron-beam lithographic processing.
- Alex Robinson
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Letter |
Random nanolasing in the Anderson localized regime
Anderson localization of light in photonic-crystal waveguides enables highly efficient, stable and broadband random nanolasing.
- J. Liu
- , P. D. Garcia
- & P. Lodahl
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Letter |
Engineering bright sub-10-nm upconverting nanocrystals for single-molecule imaging
Upconverting nanoparticles smaller than 10 nm are brighter when excited under single-particle conditions than when they are part of an ensemble.
- Daniel J. Gargas
- , Emory M. Chan
- & P. James Schuck
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Letter |
Electrically tunable excitonic light-emitting diodes based on monolayer WSe2 p–n junctions
Bright and electrostatically tunable electroluminescence from monolayer WSe2 p–n junctions is reported.
- Jason S. Ross
- , Philip Klement
- & Xiaodong Xu
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News & Views |
An alternative 'Sun' for solar cells
Nanophotonic structures can be used to engineer efficient solar thermophotovoltaic systems.
- Shanhui Fan
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Letter |
A nanophotonic solar thermophotovoltaic device
Nanophotonic surfaces are used to fabricate a 1 cm2 solar thermophotovoltaic device that achieves an overall conversion efficiency of 3.2%.
- Andrej Lenert
- , David M. Bierman
- & Evelyn N. Wang
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News & Views |
Diamonds from outer space
Stable fluorescence is observed in nanodiamonds of molecular dimensions extracted from a meteorite.
- Christoph Becher
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Letter |
Strain-mediated coupling in a quantum dot–mechanical oscillator hybrid system
Coupling of the electronic states in a quantum dot and the vibrations in a nanowire can be achieved by using strain.
- I. Yeo
- , P-L. de Assis
- & M. Richard
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Letter |
Efficient solar water-splitting using a nanocrystalline CoO photocatalyst
Cobalt oxide nanoparticles can carry out overall water splitting with a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of around 5%.
- Longb Liao
- , Qiuhui Zhang
- & Jiming Bao
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Letter |
Molecular-sized fluorescent nanodiamonds
Diamond nanoparticles containing only about 400 atoms emit bright fluorescence due to silicon vacancy defects.
- Igor I. Vlasov
- , Andrey A. Shiryaev
- & Jörg Wrachtrup
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Research Highlights |
Our choice from the recent literature
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Review Article |
Artificial honeycomb lattices for electrons, atoms and photons
Artificial honeycomb lattices offer a tunable platform for studying massless Dirac quasiparticles, and their topological and correlated phases.
- Marco Polini
- , Francisco Guinea
- & Vittorio Pellegrini
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Letter |
Quantum interference in plasmonic circuits
Quantum interference between two indistinguishable surface plasmons is demonstrated in a nanoscale plasmonic circuit.
- Reinier W. Heeres
- , Leo P. Kouwenhoven
- & Valery Zwiller
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News & Views |
Plasmons at the surface
Plasmons have been excited on the surface states of the topological insulator Bi2Se3.
- Yoshinori Okada
- & Vidya Madhavan
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Letter |
Luminescence upconversion in colloidal double quantum dots
Double-nanocrystal systems can be used as an alternative to rare earth-doped dielectric quantum dots for upconversion luminescence.
- Zvicka Deutsch
- , Lior Neeman
- & Dan Oron
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Letter |
Observation of Dirac plasmons in a topological insulator
Plasmonic excitation of massless electrons is observed in Bi2Se3.
- P. Di Pietro
- , M. Ortolani
- & S. Lupi
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News & Views |
A sense of direction
Lattice surface plasmons enable large-area unidirectional emission of coherent light generated at deep subwavelength scales.
- Jorge Bravo-Abad
- & Francisco J. García-Vidal
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Letter |
Bright, long-lived and coherent excitons in carbon nanotube quantum dots
Exciton localization in suspended carbon nanotubes leads to bright fluoresence with an ultranarrow linewidth and long lifetime.
- Matthias S. Hofmann
- , Jan T. Glückert
- & Alexander Högele
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News & Views |
Breaking the concentration barrier
The combination of a plasmonic nanoantenna and a nanoaperture has merged fluorescence enhancement and spatial confinement to enable single-molecule detection at biologically relevant concentrations.
- Philip Tinnefeld
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Letter |
Lasing action in strongly coupled plasmonic nanocavity arrays
Two-dimensional arrays of plasmonic nanoparticles coupled with a gain medium can behave as a surface-emitting laser with near-zero group velocity and picosecond dynamics.
- Wei Zhou
- , Montacer Dridi
- & Teri W. Odom
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Letter |
A plasmonic ‘antenna-in-box’ platform for enhanced single-molecule analysis at micromolar concentrations
A plasmonic nanoantenna enables a thousand fold-enhanced fluorescence brightness allowing single-molecule analysis to be carried out in a zeptolitre volume at physiological concentrations.
- Deep Punj
- , Mathieu Mivelle
- & Jérôme Wenger
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News & Views |
A new type of light switch
Microcavity polaritons can be used to create optical switches, which could serve as the basic component of optical logic circuits.
- David Snoke
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News & Views |
Trapped by nanostructures
The design of specific nanostructured optical gratings allows the realization of efficient traps for a large number of cold atoms.
- Jérôme Estève
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Letter |
A subwavelength plasmonic metamolecule exhibiting magnetic-based optical Fano resonance
Small asymmetries in a 2 × 2 array of nanoparticles enable the experimental observation of a magnetic-based Fano resonance at optical frequencies.
- Farbod Shafiei
- , Francesco Monticone
- & Xiaoqin Li
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Letter |
A nanocomposite ultraviolet photodetector based on interfacial trap-controlled charge injection
A solution-processed ultraviolet photodetector with a nanocomposite active layer composed of ZnO nanoparticles blended with semiconducting polymers can significantly outperform inorganic photodetectors.
- Fawen Guo
- , Bin Yang
- & Jinsong Huang
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News & Views |
Hall effect breaks new ground
Direct determination of carrier concentration and doping in a single nanowire is achieved by placing four electrical contacts along its sidewall.
- Ray LaPierre
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Letter |
Printing colour at the optical diffraction limit
Controlling the plasmon resonance of nanodisk structures enables colour images to be printed at the ultimate resolution of 100,000 dots per inch, as viewed by bright-field microscopy.
- Karthik Kumar
- , Huigao Duan
- & Joel K. W. Yang